Future NFL stadiums could feature less sitting, more standing

Posted by Mike Florio on January 27, 2013, 12:02 AM EST

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Our pal Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times has written an article that looks at the various challenges the NFL is facing. One of the biggest arises from persuading fans to choose to attend games over watching them at home.

Late in the item comes an intriguing prediction about the configuration of future NFL stadiums, courtesy of NFL executive V.P. of business operations Eric Grubman.

“What if a new stadium we built wasn’t 70,000, but it was 40,000 seats with 20,000 standing room?” Grubman said. “But the standing room was in a bar-type environment with three sides of screens, and one side where you see the field. Completely connected. And in those three sides of screens, you not only got every piece of NFL content, including replays, Red Zone [Channel], and analysis, but you got every other piece of news and sports content that you would like to have if you were at home.

“Now you have the game, the bar and social setting, and you have the content. What’s that ticket worth? What’s that environment feel like to a young person? Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in that seat, or do you want to be in that pavilion?”

Plenty of people would choose to be in the pavilion, if the price is right. (And if the beer isn’t priced quite so high.)

Grubman’s example, with a 70,000-seat stadium becoming a 60,000-person hybrid, reflects another inevitable reality for the NFL. To maintain the buzz of a full stadium, stadiums may need to get smaller.

“A restaurant isn’t as good if there’s only four people in there,” 49ers CEO Jed York said. “When a restaurant is hustling and bustling, it just feels better, the food tastes better because you see everybody else enjoying it. That’s the same thing for any live event. Great bands, if you don’t have a great crowd, then the band isn’t quite as good.”

He’s right — and it’s wise for the league to continuously be thinking about ways to adapt the business model to ensure that business continues to thrive, not only on TV but inside each and every stadium.

More drinking, more fights, less people, less food sales, more chaos, more bathrooms. More security, more ambulances, bigger headaches, more people falling down from not having a seat to collapse into.

Why go to a stadium for a standing room, when you can do the same at a bar? Going to the game is all about watching it in person. I don’t need to be “in” the stadium to do the same thing I do elsewhere

I want to watch a game not be bombarded by media. I don’t want people to talk to me – I just want to watch the game. I want to yell and disrupt the opposing offenses. I would stay home to avoid the stadium of the future. People stay home because their team is not doing well; the prices are too high for families and the food is terrible even in New Orleans.

– increased promotion of alcoholic beverage consumption. At a time when sports teams and leagues are concerned about drunken unruly fans and players getting DUI/DWI arrests, they can’t open 20,000 seat bars.

– noise. When you’re watching a game at home, you hear the broadcasters and their analyses… so if you get up to go to the kitchen, you can still hear what’s going on (and rush back when you hear someone’s voice getting excited). How are you supposed to hear anything in a stadium-based sports bar? You’re competing with the outdoor crowd, the bar crowd, and the PA system… and with competing-content TVs, how would you get sound anyway? Ever try to listen to a game at a regular sports bar?

– PSLs. This is how owners are paying for these new buildings – they are not going to give up charging a third of potential patrons (because no one will go to these bars if the price includes a “Personal Standing License”) and overcharge those who wish to sit in the stands – just ask the Jets how that worked out for them with MetLife (upper level non-PSL) vs how the Giants did it (all seats PSL).

ok well Ive been to countless packed out places where the food tastes like dog sh*t and never went back so stick to ur 49ers hipster crap and worry bout ur super bowl game instead of restaurant management

So I can have 2 LCDs at home (one for game one for data) some pizzas, a recliner and a case of beer and get the same experience as the NFL of the future without an obnoxious drunk, parking, and cold temps? Why am I gonna go to a live game?

why would I want a bar type atmosphere at the games? People get into fights at the games because of alcohol. They get shot and stabbed. Not to mention…..if I want a bar type atmosphere, why would I pay $70+ for a ticket, and pay $9 for a cup of beer, when I can just walk into a bar for free and pay $4-5 for a bottle?

This would only work if the team makes more money doing this 40K 20K split scenario than the typical stadium.

I’m not sure it would work that way. People aren’t going to want to pay the typical NFL ticket price to stand in a bar like scene with 19,999 other people. Face it, the NFL isn’t going to make these hypothetical tickets $10-$20.

Wait, so pay $40 instead of $50 to stand and watch the game instead of sit and watch the game? Sorry NFL, but my couch with the refrigerator and toilet only feet away with no wait, and the controlled climate, and the HDTV with the best angles, and the lack of drunk and shouting fans, and not having to wake up at 9am for a 1pm game, and………………

Just lower prices. I think that everytime the league comes out with new ways to “enhance the experience” or to “put people in the stands. Stop trying to be smart and follow the bouncing ball here. Lower the prices on tickets, food and parking.

translation= The NFL wants to place a sportsbar inside the stadium…another poor idea that will not work to compete with cable, dishnetworks and fans who rather watch the game from their home and not worry about high ticket prices, high food prices, high parking fees and deal with drunks at the stadium…a peace of mind is priceless to watch and enjoy football games from comfort of home without the drama of sitting at a stadium.

2. If the stadium has the Sunday Ticket what’s the point of being there?

3. A bar setting? Where will the kids that attend games be? Where are the women men want to meet? What will they charge for drinks? Answers are it wouldn’t be kid friendly (it isn’t now either), women will not be there to meet anyone and drinks will be the same prices or more. Imagine that bar tab!!!

I will stay home, eat and drink cheap and not have to look or hear anyone I hate besides the announcers.

“But the standing room was in a bar-type environment with three sides of screens, and one side where you see the field. Completely connected. And in those three sides of screens, you not only got every piece of NFL content, including replays, Red Zone [Channel], and analysis, but you got every other piece of news and sports content that you would like to have if you were at home.”

I can do all the above while sitting on my couch with an iPad following updates on Twitter.

And I don’t have to:
– leaving home two hours before game starts to beat traffic
– pay ($$$) to park [per game]
– long lines for security
– sit next to rude fans
– can chose my type of beer instead of the “offical” one.
– have fresh food.
– my own private bathroom

Speak for yourself, Id be all over that.
Even when we head down for Mariners games we sit in our seats for the first inning or two and always end up in the standing room bar out in the outfield drinking, socializing and watching the game. Way more fun. If the NFL had that at a reasonable price that’s where’d me and my friends would buy.
That said Seahawks fans stand the whole game and the atmosphere there feels like a social gathering anyways.

I used to laugh at my friend who said that sometime before we die NFL will be a PPV event. I told him 3 years ago he was right and I believe it will happen. Yeah give me your thumbs down, but if you really think about it thats the direction the NFL is heading. The writing is on the wall.

Strangest thing. In boring sports like Baseball, where there is a tremendous amount of nothing happening, people could stand in a pavilion behind home plate or way out in the outfield to watch intermittently.
The NFL is much more centric. Fans really want to sit at mid-field. The people at the NFL pavilions would find that it is much cheaper and watch on TVs, in the parking lot.
“Plenty of people would choose to be in the pavilion, if the price is right. (And if the beer isn’t priced quite so high.)”
The NFL still wants premium prices on all areas, and beers will be just as high, if not higher.
And what about people that felt sick or dizzy and wanted to sit down?

Who wants to pay to go to a game just to watch highlights from other games on RedZone? And how useful is all that other news and analysis gonna be if you can’t hear it over the thousands of other talking fans? I credit the league for trying to do some forward thinking but the best and quickest way to get fans into the stadium is by lowering the cost of attending a game.

It’s amazing to me what some people would consider a good idea or an innovative idea. I wouldn’t go to a concert to listen to my ipod. What makes them think people would go to a game so they could stand around and watch tv? I seriously doubt 20, 000 drunk people crammed into SRO watching a heated rivalry play out well.

Two sports I truly love going to anymore are the NHL and mls. Can’t watch hockey on tv, but atmosphere at mls games are the soul reason I go. NFL games are just people complaining about others standing and not paying attention to what’s going on. Mls games are filled with singing and focus on the game. I don’t know how, but I really don’t enjoy myself at NFL games…atmosphere is lame.

This is what has already happened in Jacksonville. We have the Bud Zone which is exactly what this plan enfolds. This is also part of the reason many people don’t see Jags fans in the seats, because they are in the Bud Zone!!!

Going to games means sitting with fans, not watching TV. They should be selling the unique experience of sharing a tailgate with close friends and sitting with 70,000 people while cheering on your favorite team. Because THAT is why I go.

Unfortunately, the business instead looks at tailgating as lost revenue and squeezes out way too much from ticket prices that they drive away regular folks who might fill their seats and create life long fans who will pass on their love for this great game to their kids.

Hey NFL….it’s a long con, not a short con. Make it EASY to go to the games and they will SPEND. Cut ticket and food and parking prices and they will empty their pockets and fill your seats.

20,000…That’s not a bar type or home type setting… that’s a freaking concert setting… Even if you got 4 areas like that its still 5000 per area.

To be honest, I go to 1 or two games a season max. I much rather go down to my local sports bar with my friends and spend $ on drink and food while watching on the flat screen. NFL stadiums food and drink prices are just to high.

No… Stadiums don’t need to get smaller but the seating capacity needs to change. Instead of seeing how many ridiculously cramped rows you can fit of tony chair… How about you double the size of every chair. Give me some damn room not only for my legs, but also to my left and to my right. Oh, and back the tow brhind me ip so the people sitting there aren’t yapping/sneezing/puking right into my year! and an arm rest or two I can actually use.

And hell yeah the prices of food/drink need to be lowered. Not by a dollar, but by about half! 4.50 for ONE hotdog? 4.00 for a bottle of water?

You can keep beer prices the same if you want, I understand the argument that drunks are one of the biggest deterrents to going to a game for many people.

I guess at least this is a less ridiculous theory than the Yankees blaming empty seats on StubHub, because apparently fans hate cheaper tickets.

Yes, TV is to blame because die hard fans would so rather watch the game on a 47 inch screen than the incomparable experience of being AT the game which that type of fan USED TO be on waiting lists for years just to have the chance at season tickets.

Anything to avoid blaming the actual reason, forever increasing ticket prices to attend games in an expensive stadium that they already paid for with tax money, because that’s the new thing is to design these state of the art Taj Mahal meets Disney World meets Buffalo Wild Wings stadiums & pony up a little of your fortune then get the rest paid by the fans thru taxes & try to distract them from that fact as long as possible.

So go ahead & design your new age stadium & charge an absurd amount of money for the actual seats & your “discounted” standing room only bar tickets (which you can count on probably being a little MORE expensive than what would currently be nosebleed seats because “You’re paying for the EXPERIENCE!”) and hope fans never figure out that for what you got in public funding they’re probably already owed tickets to the place. Then blame HD-TV when that doesn’t work, or maybe you’ll be blaming 3D by then, or smell-o-vision. Who knows. It’ll be ridiculous, that’s all I know.

Going to games are fun, but most NFL fans enjoy being at home drinking those beers they picked up yesterday and eating their wife’s/girlfriend’s snacks/takeout. Replays on hand (not to mention DVR), and most couches are more comfortable than stadium seats.

I understand why they think this could be a good idea, and credit should be given to thinking in an unconventional way, but I believe this is a big mistake. This only furthers the environment of watching the game at home for a far reduced price. The NFL is the biggest money-maker in American sports, and by a wide margin, but I do see a potential problem with the live audience. NFL games feature so many time outs, often TV influenced, that it could be harmful for the game.

Billionaire owners asking for tax payer funded stadiums who then make fans stand at said stadiums charging ridiculous prices? Go F yourselves! What’s next!?! Damn, it’s hard enough to root for teams who can’t put a decent product on the field. The nfl needs to take their head out their a$$es and realize fans are what makes them.

99 times out of 100 I get more out of the game using my high end A/V system at home. The stadiums need to do something if they want to lure me back, this might do it. They would need to give me something I can’t get at home.

I can see a day when the normies will be completely priced out, and the only folks showing up to watch NFL games will be those with luxury boxes owned by corporations. For those not in attendance, NFL games will be pay-per-view.

When are these NFL people going to realize that its not about the amount of crap you can pack into the “experience.” It simply come down to affordability. After the novelty of all the bells and whistles wear off you’re just going to end up back where you started. Having to come up with even more outlandish schemes to try and justify even higher ticket prices.

The reason people go to football games is to watch the football game, and the sad fact is that doing so is becoming just way to expensive for the average fan to do.

My girlfriend and I are huge Lions fans and season ticket holders (been in my family since 1980.) Between tickets, parking, food/drinks, and stuff from the pro-shop we spend an obscene amount of money every game. We are both doing well and have no kids, so its still possible for us to manage it. I simply could not imagine taking a family down for one game, let alone a whole season! Even still, if the Lions ever decide to use PSLs’ I’m done.

My point is being made and it was made in a post that followed the news of the Sun Life Stadium renovations.

More people stay at home and so stadiums need fewer seats and more acoustic-like features to give the home team the advantage like Seattle’s Century Link Field.

When you Never hear or see these developments being talked about with respect to the potential Los Angeles Stadium I do not think that it is wrong for you to have doubt of any team moving there. Otherwise declare victory when the moving trucks are heading there.

Good lord, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Want full stadiums? Lower prices are the ONLY thing that’s going to make it happen. The sooner the NFL grasps this tremendously simple concept, the sooner they can quit wasting money on all these marketing clowns and their ridiculous ideas.

Do something about ticket costs. It shouldn’t cost me $750 for a family of 4 to enjoy a game on a random Sunday.

Especially since ALL of these stadiums are being built at least partially with public funds. So our taxes go into paying for half the stadium and we don’t even get a discount at all once it’s finished. If anything, we get the opposite

Stupid idea!!!!!!!!!
Better idea……. Give me fast speed Internet so I can listen to the live radio broadcast or watch the tv broad cast on my iphone from my seat.
Fast speed Internet and putting a winning product on the field will keep people in their seats. There’s nothing like being at a live game, but I’d like to have information at my fingertips!!
Go Hawks

This may be a good idea for some teams that can’t fill the stadium but it is a horrible idea for bigger market teams. You still need to provide good content/product. Jacksonville has this in their stadium already. Bar atmosphere with opening going to a terrace where you can stand and watch the game. My $70 face value ticket was $30 outside – for a Monday Night Football game in 2011. Well run, winning teams create buzz and fan following.

great idea…this will DEFF cut down on fights in stadium lol put 1000s of people in a close range alcoholic environment and then close the doors around them…there should be a room to sit and watch the bar room

I’m not sure about smaller stadiums, at least not for the reasons they give. Food doesn’t taste better when you have little/no leg room and you can’t extend your arms to put your things somewhere. Anyone who has been to a Manhattan restaurant will tell you. And people don’t jump up on tables or start moshing if the food is really good.

Another example of the NFL trying to solve an NFL problem by getting cities to fund new stadiums. Maybe they could consider lowering prices to fill the stadiums they have. That would be the Economics 101 response to lower demand.

If they’re going to turn the stadium experience into a bar setting, I’d rather go to the bar where I don’t have to buy a ticket, the beer is half the price, and I get a seat and don’t have to stand for four hours. Or in all reality, I’d just prefer to watch the game from home with some friends.

Given the NFL’s usual MO of extorting taxpayers, I wonder just where is there a municipality, of a current team or otherwise, that will agree to build such a venue. Perhaps closing & covering seat sections, like in Miami, or remodeling portions pf current sites to check the theory is more likely. Perhaps, digitized crowd noise would be a better option. Especially if it had an interactive feature through cable TV for the cable viewer to be an audible part of the stadium atmosphere. Because really, with the concussion issue, I am afraid it will all be Madden football before long anyway.

Another stupid suggestion to bring more fans to games. How about this NFL stop ripping us off on parking fees and food prices and help to create a better environment where we actually feel safe to bring our children with us for the afternoon.

Tickets: $100 ea (conservatively and thats only for halfway decent seats)
Parking: $15-$30
Traffic: No cost, but can be annoying as all hell
Food/Drink: $75 (and that’s at a minimum and not even counting pre-game)

Just with that I’d be looking at $390-$405+ a game. Now you change that to standing room only at a restaurant, I’ll still be looking at the same prices as I’m pretty sure that the food/drink there will be just as high or higher as it is now. Now why would I want to spend that much money to stand in a restaurant at the stadium when I can spend half that at an actual sportsbar or restaurant. Hell, I can have redzone at my house, spend even less on better beer, and actually have a game day BBQ for less.

I feel like NFL has dug their own hole with this. I agree, if I’m not paying 100 a ticket to watch the game live, I’m definitely not paying a $50+ for what would essentially be a cover charge to watch the game in the stadium in a bar and pay $8.00 for a beer. I can go to any bar most of them free to get in with less expensive beers.

This is a bad idea. I agree, if I’m not going to pay $100 for a ticket to the game, I am definitely not going to pay $60+ for what is essentially a cover charge to drink $8 beers and eat over priced food. This is dumb. People aren’t choosing to go to bars as opposed to the stadium for the atmosphere, they do it because it is less expensive.

I personally rather go to the game than watch it from home this was the first time in 5 years I did not attend a single Redskins game. I don’t think it’s the fact that people don’t want to go its what’s the teams record who is in the team and who are they playing. There are certain teams who don’t have problems bringing in fans to games regardless of their record. Oakland, Washington, Dallas, Kansas City are some of the teams who sellout no matter what their record is. Fans are not going to lineup to see the jaguars Where there is no star besides Mjd no matter who is playing there are teams in the league ppl are willing to waste their hard earned money on and somethey are not. Doing the above idea wouldn’t make people rush to see the jags, chargers, or dolphins.

Its too expensive for an average person to attend an NFL game, with all that is entailed in the cost, gas, parking, eating, the ticket. This PSL thing is also a big factor. Im happy the players are getting their money, but the cost is simply too much.

If you want more people at the games stop adding fancy perks to the stadiums so you can lower ticket prices. The ONLY reason I only go to one game every two years for the past eight years is the price. And I know a lot of people who feel the same. We don’t care about a ginormous screen or fancy restaurants or concourses with gold plated floors. We just want to take our kids to a game eat some hotdogs and not have it cost a weeks salary. This seems like a concept any half witted business man could grasp.

Speak for yourself, Id be all over that.
Even when we head down for Mariners games we sit in our seats for the first inning or two and always end up in the standing room bar out in the outfield drinking, socializing and watching the game. Way more fun. If the NFL had that at a reasonable price that’s where’d me and my friends would buy.
That said Seahawks fans stand the whole game and the atmosphere there feels like a social gathering anyways.
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Dude it is Seattle try going to a game in N.Y or Philly or even Miami for a real experience.

If tickets were cheaper, then the NFL wouldnt be thinking about this. In fact, the article and study never mention ticket prices. Watching at home is comfortable and all, but at the end of the day the decision lies if the fans can afford the game or not.

Lets see I weigh the issue of going to a game pay trible price for everything from parking, ticket and food to watch players not allowed to hit anyone and watch the refs continue to to be inconsisdent on calls and then spend hours re watching refs review play or stay at home and when this goes on go to the kitchen and fix me a great sandwich for under 2.oo . I’m still thinking.

This will sound stupid but why not leave the amount of seats alone but create a division where one side of the stadium, 30,000 or so seats is pure family friendly, no beer allowed. The other side, 20,000 seats with a 5,000 standing room bar at each corner of the other side of the stadium. This would only work if you dramatically lower ticket cost while increasing alcohol cost, make the dude with the kids pay $2 per soda and hot dog but the drunk gets to pay $12 per beer. Or something along these lines, basically separate the morons, kind of like sky boxes did originally.

Yes, make the seats all very cheap….then good luck ever getting a ticket! For all you supposed lovers of free economics on this site, it’s interesting now you complain of capitalism since it affects YOU.

Owners can charge whatever they want for ticket prices and food/drink, and people are still going to pay. It’s never a matter of price of going to a game when the city has a winning franchise. Show me one time where a playoff team wasn’t near full capacity and I’ll retract my statement.

It’s not a matter of cost, it’s a matter of if the owner and GM can put together a winning team.

If memory serves (as if you’ve come this far down the column to read this) one of the huge problems with English soccer hooligans was, in the older stadiums with few if any seats, they stood and got ripped with their mates, raising hell, and terrorizing the community they were in. Getting rid of SRO largely solved that problem, I believe.

Everything at the game is grossly overpriced ($7.50 for a beer I wouldn’t drink for free) and until a way is found to fix that, it’s going to be impossible to attract new people. Plus the fact that it takes 2+ hours to get out of the parking lot when the game is over. I’ll take the Directv NFL package, thanks.

I’ve stood in the party pass area at cowboys stadium. It’s annoying. If you don’t get there hours early you end up standing behind a lot of people to get a view of the field. If you do get up to the front you’ll undoubtedly have to go to the restroom or get something to drink which means you’d lose that spot. Now I just cough up the money for a seat. That is a much better experience. Also, who goes to a restaurant and has an awesome meal but then says “dang, this steak would taste better if 100 people were in here.” A steak is a steak and is good because it’s good. Same goes for bands.

To those who want teams to lower ticket prices should know that ALL good seats are bought by season ticket holders. To lower these prices means more profit to scalpers.
I think that seats in the nose bleed sections should be sold for about $10 each. I’ve sat there and the players look very tiny and you can’t really see the game. However, you are part of the excitement and cheer with the crowd.
In my opinion, more and more games will be blacked out because teams have priced these seats too high and fans know that they can see the game much better on their big screen HD sets at home. But if a fan can take his family to the game for $40, plus parking, teams will have a chance to fill the place.

Maybe owners should consider something like every week, having randomly selected sections/rows whatever whose face value ticket cost is comped back to them via merchandise, food and non alcoholic drink vouchers or something. That way the money stays in house but the customer gets to go to the game and get food/drink/merchandise without spending extra. And they could even give the customer a choice of letting them use it at a future game that season, or to get half the cash now as a refund. People LOVE free stuff, and chances to win free stuff.

Everyone has already said it, but I’ll add it again. If they want a more crowded stadium, don’t charge a fortune for tickets. As far as standing room only, forget that. I love my cowboys, but Im not staying on my feet for 4-5 hours. My feet would be so sore by the end of the game I wouldn’t even enjoy myself. Go ahead, put a million seats in the stadium. Then charge me 30 bucks a seat instead of 100 + parking. If i could get an actual seat for 30 bucks, parking for under 25, and even leave the food prices where they are, I would go to at least a game a season.
If you want the bar atmosphere, go to a bar. If you want to watch 30 other games, stay home. I would love actually experiencing sitting in the stadium to watch games from time to time.

Its not a horriffic idea, and I will give credit for outside-the-box thinking on this one.

There are a few issues with this. For instance, I’m a Saints fan, and I choose to watch my team in a local bar. At that bar, I park for free, a bucket of beer (5 bottles) only costs $11, and food is cheap. Most menu items only run about $6 or $7, and sometimes the bar is catered for free. I can take in the whole NFL experience for a measley $20. Now, ask me if I can do that if I went to the game. “Bar atmosphere” my foot! There is no way the NFL can compete with that.

Years ago I wrote 12 ways to enhance the stadium experience. Not one idea cost extra and no stadium would worry about empty seats.
Apparently the NFL is hiring EXPERTS who are so dumb…well, if they’re getting paid we know who the actual dumb ones are.
They can’t make the experience better because all they care about is raising prices.

It’s simple. Free wifi (that actually works) and cheaper tickets and concessions. The seats will fill up. Why would i want to fight for a view in a standing room only bar when i could sit in a seat with an unobstructed view and just check my phone for score updates?

Dont discount the importance of a functioning data stream to PDA’s too. Wifi would work wonders. Most phone carriers converage doesnt work well in crowded spots (concerts, games, ect), so if they built some crazy nice wifi coverage into the stadiums that would take away a main reason why i think twice about not going to the game and just staying at home in the comfy chair checking the fantasy scores.

I mean, sure some people might like that bar concept. But does the NFL really not get that the main reason they’re ticket sales are down is that the prices have simply gotten too high? Not even counting the actual ticket cost, you could easily drop over another 2 hundred while in the stadium on any given day for food and beer and parking.